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AFTER two years of legal wrangling, the fate of 78 vacant acres along Route 22 in Watchung where the Lockheed Electronics complex once stood has been decided.
Later this month, work is expected to start on filling the site and 12 adjacent acres with a 750,000-square-foot shopping center, the largest commercial development in the Somerset County borough in nearly four decades.
In June, the New Jersey Supreme Court decided not to hear the case against the planned $90-million center, known as Watchung Square.
The decision ended the lawsuit filed by neighboring North Plainfield and two residents -- one from Watchung, the other from North Plainfield -- and cleared the way for the project to proceed.
Watchung Square will be a ''power center,'' which the International Council of Shopping Centers in Manhattan defines as an open-air retail strip with 250,000 square feet of space or more and three or more large specialty stores.Continue reading the main story
The project, which is nearly fully leased, will have 17 stores, including a 125,000-square-foot Target department store, a 124,000-square-foot Home Depot, a 66,000-square-foot supermarket and a 10,000-square-foot Model's sporting goods store. There will also be a 16-screen Regal movie complex, said Sal A. Davino, who is managing partner of Watchung Square L.L.C., the entity created to develop the project.
Mr. Davino, a longtime shopping center developer who also heads Fidelity Land Development of Chatham, said Watchung Square would be completed in 18 months, nearly seven years after he got involved with the project.
The start of a center this size indicates the faith of the developer in the strength of the retail market in the state in general and in Somerset County in particular. But the time it took to get the project to this point also shows that the development climate is becoming more complex as the supply of land to develop dwindles and community concerns rise.
Those concerns range from providing adequate drainage and controlling traffic to preserving the quality of life of residents in the community as well as in neighboring communities -- all of which were issues in the Watchung project.
Mr. Davino said he had stayed the course through the litigation as well as a two-and-a-half-year approval process because of the site's location, on a major retail corridor in a county with strong demographics. Some 213,500 people with an average household income of $68,927 live within a five-mile radius of the center, he said.
''Sure, there is a lot of retail along the corridor,'' Mr. Davino said. But in between the cluster of stores in Union Township and the enclosed Bridgewater Commons Mall in Bridgewater ''there are no power centers,'' he said.
ACCORDING to the International Council of Shopping Centers, power centers and retail shopping strips are the dominant form of retail being constructed today. Such centers continue to grow nationally, albeit not has rapidly as they had in past, with 54 power centers built in 1998, compared with 81 built in 1997. Last year, however, only 11 enclosed regional malls were built, according to data from the council and the National Research Bureau, a publisher of shopping-center data based in Chicago.
Mr. Davino contracted to buy the 78-acre site in 1994 from Lockheed Electronics, a subsidiary of what is now Lockheed Martin, which closed its old complex four years earlier and worked with Watchung officials to have the site rezoned from industrial to highway commercial use, including retail. After that, Lockheed razed the complex and cleaned the site, which contained levels of trichloroethylene, a cleaning solvent, to accommodate the shopping center.
Designed by Patrick Marchetta of Lynhurst, the center will comprise six low-rise buildings scattered at the edges of the sloping site, with parking for 3,300 cars in front of the stores and at the site's core.
It was approved by the borough's planning board in 1997.
Anthony F. Addario, the Mayor of Watchung, said he supported the project because ''its retail use fits like a glove'' on the borough's half-mile stretch of Route 22, where stores predominate. He said it would generate ''tax revenue that will exceed the municipal services required to accommodate the shopping center.'' Estimates are that it will generate $1 million in new tax revenue a year, helping ''to keep a lid on property taxes,'' he added.
Some residents of Watchung opposed the center, as did residents and local officials in North Plainfield, who were concerned that so large a project would substantially increase traffic and create water runoff problems. Others also wanted the project scaled back and the movie theaters excluded.
While conceding that there would be more traffic, Mayor Addario noted that the developer, to gain his approvals, agreed to environmental, design and traffic concessions. They range from carving out two retention basins so that the runoff would be less than it would be if the property were left undeveloped to making $5 million in off-site road improvements, among them the widening of a stretch of Route 22 to six lanes from four.
Mr. Davino said he had also acquired the 12 additional acres from Lockheed to relocate the movie theater to the southwest corner of the site, farther away from residences. He added that six acres in the northwest corner of the site, where the movie theater had originally been situated, has been donated to the borough.
The concessions did not satisfy all objectors and after the project was granted its approvals North Plainfield and the two residents sued. They contended that, among other things, Watchung had acted in an arbitrary manner in granting the approvals.
Janice Allen, the Mayor of North Plainfield, said the key issues for her community were traffic and drainage problems. The latter is of particular concern since North Plainfield lies in a flood zone, she said. ''We pursued any and all legal means,'' she added, arguing that North Plainfield would be hurt by the project, but receive none of the benefits it will generate. Now, she said, her concerns are focused on the issue of groundwater contamination.
THOUGH the soil on the Lockheed site has been cleaned, contaminants have filtered into the groundwater below and are migrating off site, affecting the groundwater in North Plainfield. But Mr. Davino said -- and the state's Department of Environmental Protection confirmed -- that Lockheed is putting in more monitoring wells to identify the source of the contamination, and once located, has agreed to install a pump and treatment station.
''Regardless of the process the developer can move ahead with developing the site,'' said Loretta O'Donnell, a department spokeswoman.
Mr. Davino said that the years of negotiation and litigation had added to the cost of the project, which increased from $75 million to $90 million. The cost included the acquisition of the additional land. He said he would close on both parcels this month. It also required the ''shifting around of some of the financing'' to build the project, which he said is coming from his own equity and bank loans.
But with construction soon to start, Mr. Davino sees a silver lining. ''The retail market is that much stronger,'' he said, noting that the majority of his tenants remained with the project.
The retail vacancy rate along the 21-mile Route 22 corridor from Union to Somerville is 5.2 percent, down from 7.3 percent a year ago, according to Brunelli & Company, a retail brokerage in Old Bridge. Rents range from $12 to $25 a square foot. ''The demand is for power centers,'' said Richard J. Brunelli, the firm's president, ''and it is coming from big-box retailers, which continue to drive the market.''
He said that in addition to Watchung Square, three other power centers -- two in Bridgewater, one in Somerville, together totaling nearly 2 million square feet -- are under way or planned in Somerset County. While the county's population is growing and new retailers, including Best Buys, an electronics chain based in Eden Prairie, Minn., continue to enter the New Jersey market, the last center built will have trouble leasing, he said.
Meanwhile, Mr. Davino said the sign on the Watchung site that for the last five years has announced the arrival of the retail center will finally be coming down. Instead, he said, ''There will be buildings going up on the site.''Continue reading the main story


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If reports are to be believed, Samsung appears to be gearing up for the launch of a 6-inch Galaxy S8 Plus.
Samsung’s had a very rocky year so far. The company’s Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge smartphones took the company to new heights, while the rather explosive launch of the Galaxy Note 7 took the company to new lows.
The Korean giant needs something special if it hopes to win back the trust and brand value that it lost over the past few months and maybe, just maybe, a 6-inch Galaxy S8 can do it. Naver, a popular Korean portal, suggested the existence of such a device.
The site is in Korean and Google Translate isn’t the most accurate of tools, but from what we can make of it, the new device might be called the S8 Plus and it might feature an S7 Edge-style curved display. Stylus support isn’t explicitly mentioned, but Naver claims that Samsung has already tried out an S8 Plus prototype with stylus support.
Killing off the Note 7 and focussing on the Galaxy S series, even temporarily, does seem like the smartest thing Samsung can do right now. Just a few days ago, a Virgin America flight was cancelled because a hotspot named “Samsung Galaxy Note 7” was spotted on the flight.

domain: news


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Great news for travellers who prefer wine or beer to liquor!
From the local paper (Straits Times) today:
"From April 1, travellers will have more choices when buying duty-free liquor on arrival here.
A traveller who does not buy his one litre quota of duty-free spirits will be allowed to buy an additional litre of either duty-free wine or beer in its place.
The maximum amount of duty-free liquor allowed in will remain at three litres.
This is a change from the current rule, which allows a traveller to buy a maximum of one litre each of beer, spirits and wine, with no substitution allowed.
This concession applies only to travellers aged 18 and above who have spent more than 48 hours outside Singapore, and who are not arriving from Malaysia.
The liquor must be for personal consumption.
Travellers who bring in more than the duty-free allowance must declare it and pay duty as well as goods and services tax on the excess.
Payments can be made at either the tax payment kiosks at Changi Airport or the Singapore Customs' tax payments office.
The changes, officially announced by Singapore Customs yesterday, follow Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam's Budget speech last month, during which he announced that those entering Singapore would be allowed an additional litre of duty-free beer or wine in lieu of spirits."


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Weeks talks tech with shareholders
Casting an eye on the future, Corning Inc. CEO Wendell Weeks shed light on some of the company’s key growth opportunities during his “state of the company” talk at Tuesday’s annual shareholders meeting.
He touted the company’s new One Wireless Platform, an all-optical fiber distributed antenna system for cellular and Wi-Fi in indoor venues with high volumes of smartphone usage.
“If you’ve spent time in a sports stadium or convention center, you’ve probably experienced the frustration of trying to get a strong signal on your cell phone,” Weeks said. “Our solution enables clear signals and massive bandwidth in the toughest indoor environments, and it’s easier to install and much more flexible to upgrade than the incumbent technology.”
One of the first customers was a company that runs nine major hotel/casinos in Las Vegas.
There’s a big market for wireless infrastructure, Weeks said.
“Out of approximately five million commercial buildings in the U.S., less than 10 percent currently have an indoor cellular network, so this is a huge opportunity for us,” he said.
This year, Corning Inc. expects to begin selling Willow Glass - a product that has been in the development phase for several years. It’s extremely thin display glass, about the thickness of a dollar bill, and is so flexible that it can be bent and rolled.
The company is also working with a company called View Inc., which makes energy-saving “smart windows” that shift from transparent to opaque. The tint level adjusts automatically or can be hand-controlled, essentially eliminating the need for blinds or curtains.
Corning Inc.’s Environmental Technologies business is developing new technology that cuts down on “cold-start emissions” in vehicles.
“About 70 percent of emissions are in the first 30 seconds after starting the engine, so these products are critical to ensure compliance with new (air pollution) regulations,” Weeks said.
The company’s Life Sciences segment is expanding its line of equipment used in drug research labs, he added.
“One of the biggest trends in medicine right now is biologics,” Weeks said. “Instead of producing drugs through the traditional method of chemical synthesis, researchers are developing some of today’s most promising treatments by using living cells. This is great news for Corning, because we’re one of the world’s leading innovators in cell cultures.”
Also speaking at Tuesday’s shareholders meeting was James Clappin, president of Corning Glass Technologies.
He focused largely on Gorilla Glass, one of the company’s star products in recent years. The cover glass for consumer electronics is now used in 33 major brands, 2,400 product models and 2.4 billion devices worldwide, he said.
A fourth generation of Gorilla will be released later this year, Clappin said.
Although there’s been rampant speculation in tech media that Apple will switch from Gorilla Glass to sapphire for the cover of the upcoming iPhone 6, possibly dealing a blow to Corning Inc., Clappin was upbeat.
“We’re very excited about what lies ahead for Gorilla Glass on a number of fronts,” he said.
A version of Gorilla with anti-microbial properties recently became the first product of its kind to be registered with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, he said. It could be used for frequently touched surfaces in settings such as hospitals, schools and airports.
Gorilla is being used in the rear window of the BMW i8 hybrid sports car, heralding its expansion into the automotive industry, Clappin added.
“If we get our way, Gorilla Glass will be found in planes, trains and automobiles all around the world,” he said.
There’s also a wide variety of possible interior architectural uses for Gorilla, such as elevators, lobbies and conference rooms, he said.


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Procurement Fred Heritage · 15 May 2017
Business owners unaware of government cyber security services
Company owners in the UK remain mostly unaware of the government cyber security services available to them, that could prove crucial in defence against cyber attack, a new survey has revealed. New research from the London Chambers of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) found that just 13 per cent of company owners in the UK capital had used any of the government’s eight different services to help protect against online attack. In the case of each government-backed scheme, at least 65 per cent of respondent business owners werent aware of its existence, with the highest uptake of any service amongst businesses being nine per cent, in the case of Action Fraud. The results of the LCC survey, carried out amongst over 500 London business owners, were published following the most recent ransomware cyber attacks that have wreaked havoc on thousands of UK businesses, including the NHS, this month. More than 200, 000 computers, in around 150 countries, are thought to have been affected by the so-called WannaCry ransomware virus, which takes over control of users? files and demands a 230 ransom? to give back access. It experts have said that lack of awareness amongst owners about the proper ways to protect businesses online have made attacks like WannaCry more likely. Warning company owners, managing director at London IT experts Fitzrovia, Daren Oliver, said: ‘simply updating software is not enough. every business is at risk of a cyberattack however it’s how companies mitigate the risk which is key. The issue isnt necessarily complacency amongst businesses, but lack of awareness, levels of investment to protect systems and regular reviews of cybersecurity policies and procedures. To protect London’s firms from attack, LCC chief executive, Colin Stanbridge, called on mayor Sadiq Khan to raise the profile of the new London Digital Security Centre, which gives cyber security support to growing businesses. He said: We need to encourage discussion and share advice so that businesses can continue to grow without feeling under attack from cyber crime.
ABOUT THE EXPERTFred Heritage
Fred Heritage was previously deputy editor at Business Advice. He has a BA in politics and international relations from the University of Kent and an MA in international conflict from Kings College London.


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Best Buy Co. Inc. stores this week discounted Microsoft Corp.’s Kinect for Xbox 360 to under $100 in a new retail promotion.
Through Dec. 10, customers can purchase the Kinect 3-Game Bundle at $99.99, $50 off the $149.99 MSRP.
The Kinect 3-Game Bundle includes the Kinect sensor, Kinect Adventures, and Game Token Downloads for Gunstringer and Fruit Ninja Kinect.
Microsoft in June said it has sold 10 million Kinect and 10 million stand-alone Kinect titles globally.
In Nov. it began sale of the Xbox 360 Holiday Value Bundle with Kinect.


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SpeedRunners: Over 600,000 units sold
tinyBuild Games has just annoucned that their flagship title SpeedRunners has now sold more than 600,000 units on Steam Early Access. Over one million play sessions have been reported since the end of 2014 and the development expects many more once the game is fully launched on PC and Xbox One.
Final release for the game is due later this year.
For more info, visit http://tinybuild.com/speedrunners
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AT&T and Verizon are violating net neutrality principles by exempting some companies' video streams from consumers' data caps, outgoing Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler told lawmakers this week.
The carriers' zero-ratings initiatives -- which AT&T calls "sponsored data" and Verizon calls "FreeBee Data 360" -- "present significant risks to consumers and competition," Wheeler said in a letter to lawmakers.
"These sponsored data offerings may harm consumers and competition by unreasonably discriminating in favor of downstream providers owned or affiliated with the network providers," Wheeler continued.
His letter comes almost two months after Democratic Senators Ed Markey (Massachusetts), Ron Wyden (Oregon), Al Franken (Minnesota), Bernie Sanders (Vermont), Elizabeth Warren (Massachusetts), Richard Blumenthal (Connecticut) and Tammy Baldwin (Wisconsin) urged the FCC to definitively state that broadband providers violate net neutrality by zero-rating their own content, or unaffiliated content, but excluding competitors.
The net neutrality rules broadly prohibit carriers from engaging in conduct that hinders the ability of consumers and content companies to reach each other online. When the FCC published those rules, it said it would take a case-by-case approach to evaluating whether data caps -- and exemptions from them -- are harmful.
AT&T pioneered "sponsored data" in 2013, when it allowed companies to pay for their data to be exempted from consumers' monthly caps. Since then, other Internet service providers -- both wireless and wireline -- have launched their own versions of zero-rating services.
AT&T also now allows wireless customers who purchase DirecTV to watch video through a mobile app, without counting those streams against customers' data caps.
Last January, Verizon rolled out FreeBee Data, which lets companies arrange for their mobile content to be zero-rated. The company also zero-rates video streamed from its Go90 mobile app.
T-Mobile -- which still has some subscribers who pay for data by the byte -- also zero-rates video from numerous companies through its "Binge On" program. T-Mobile doesn't charge companies to participate in Binge On.
Consumer advocates have raised concerns about all three programs, but the FCC only views the offerings by AT&T and Verizon as problematic.
"Unlike T-Mobile, which charges all edge providers the same zero rate for participating in BingeOn, AT&T imposes hefty per-gigabyte charges on third parties for use of Sponsored Data," Wheeler tells lawmakers. "The structure of Verizon's FreeBee Data 360 program raises similar concerns."
AT&T's program is particularly troubling to the FCC, because DirecTV offers full-length video. "DIRECTV Now may be more likely to be viewed by mainstream consumers as a substitute for, and thus a direct competitor to, major providers of video programming delivered over the Internet -- such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Sling TV, or Hulu," the FCC's Wireless Bureau said in a separate report released this week. "It is less likely that as many consumers would view the existing version of go90 as a serious competitor to those services."
Despite the critical report, the carriers aren't likely to change their approach, given that the FCC will soon have a Republican majority; the two existing Republican commissioners have already vowed to repeal the net neutrality laws.
AT&T senior vice president Joan Marsh has already responded to the FCC's report by contending that the company's zero-ratings scheme favors consumers. "It remains unclear why the Wireless Bureau continues to question the value of giving consumers the ability to watch video without incurring any data charges," Marsh blogged. "This practice, which has been embraced by AT&T and other broadband providers, has enabled millions of consumers to enjoy the latest popular content and services -- for free. We hope the government continues to support a competitive marketplace that lowers costs and increases choice for consumers.”


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MANHASSET, N.Y. To speed the development and improve the quality of applications built under Symbian OS in mobile devices, Metrowerks Corp. has launched a comprehensive software analysis tool suite under its CodeTest banner.
Comprising a hardware probe, a software probe and a native probe, the suite combines extensive visibility into the performance and execution of code with precise application analysis-all within a single tool.
The CodeTest Software Analysis Tools for Symbian OS is distinguished by the flexibility and comprehensiveness that derive from the suite's three components, said Greg Hemstreet, director of product marketing at the standard-products and core technologies division at Metrowerks. They are the CodeTest hardware probe (hardware in-circuit), CodeTest Software Probe (software in-circuit) and CodeTest Native Probe.
“We're the first to offer a really flexible set of tools that allows manufacturers of cell phones and devices running Symbian for the first time to really understand the behavior of the phone and the applications running on top of that,” he said.
Metrowerks (Austin, Texas) acquired the CodeTest suite in 2002 from Applied Microsystems, which had focused on the network communications and aviation markets. “The strength and code coverage of the hardware probe meant it was able to meet FAA requirements,” said Hemstreet.
Metrowerks, an independently operating subsidiary of Motorola Inc., has its own homegrown CodeWarrier soft-ware, middleware and hardware development suite, with a focus on consumer electronics, transportation, wireless, and networking and communications.
“We took the customer base they [Applied Micro] had,” said Hemstreet, “and brought in a new version” along with real-time operating systems “to cover more of Metrowerks' own customer base.” The company felt that now was the right time to introduce a tool suite for Symbian.
“Symbian has reached a critical-mass stage such that there's now a market for these tools, both at the hardware and software level,” said Hemstreet.
According to WinterGreen Research Inc. (Lexington, Mass.), Symbian markets topped out at $189 million in 2002 but are expected to reach $3.4 billion by 2007. “Symbian represents a razor/razor blade business, because once the handsets are in place, multiple applications can be sold at kiosks, [including] games for $10 and messaging capabilities for $5,” said a recent WinterGreen report.
Rich Bartlet, director of engineering at Metrowerks, said it's been hard to come out with a comprehensive set of analysis tools for Symbian because development is done on an emulator in a PC-based environment or on a hardware environment using ARM-based tools. “You need a company like Metrowerks that has a broader range of supported environments, spanning Windows through Symbian and deep-embedded tools to pull this off,” he said.
Hemstreet termed the hardware probe the highlight of the suite. “There's no competition for this,” he said, noting that the probe allows connection right to the processor. “This allows analysis of code with maximum accuracy with the least amount of intrusion into the system.” The probe is designed for run-mode evaluation of software in a real-time environment and comes with real-time measurement and analysis tools for use with reference designs and prototype hardware.
The software probe lets developers run a small monitor on the phone and still capture all the information. “They can bring that back to an environment that gives you the same user interface as the hardware probe for consistency,” said Hemstreet.
The native probe, meanwhile, allows connection to an Epoc emulator that runs on the Windows-based development machine. “This allows you to offer CodeTest to the whole development team, regardless of what they're connected to,” said Hemstreet, from those working on simulators right down to the developers porting the Symbian OS to a specific device. The CodeTest suite also offers trace capability that “allows capture of large amounts of information over a long period of time,” he said.
The suite is available now. The software probe sells for $8,000, the native probe for $2,500 and the hardware probe for $30,000 to $32,500, depending on connection options.


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Lead: older consumers are sometimes sneeringly regarded as Luddites fearful of that new-fangled internet. However, devices like the iPad and Kindle are ensuring their content consumption is increasingly...
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Most coverage of TV/music mogul Simon Cowell's US press event this week has focused on who the judges might be for next year's X Factor US
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We've been tracking the growth of mobile messaging apps over the past year or two, and suggesting there may be plenty of opportunities for music marketing.
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Apple is running an interesting pre-order campaign for the new One Direction album 'Midnight Memories'.
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Social analytics firm PeerIndex published its annual chart of the most influential UK Twitter users yesterday, with musicians to the fore.
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Video-sharing app Vyclone has been used at gigs by artists like Ed Sheeran, Madonna and No Doubt as part of official marketing campaigns, but now the UK/US startup has its biggest deal yet: One Direction.
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Sony Pictures is running an ambitious 'One Month of One Direction' campaign to promote the band's new 'This Is Us' film, with plenty of digital elements.
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July was quite a month for One Direction on YouTube. The British boy-band notched up 133.8m views from their Vevo-branded channel, up 47% on June's 71.5m total. No surprise really: the video for their...


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T Cyber Security Department of the Kuwaiti Ministry of Interior called on iPhone users to apply the necessary updates issued by Apple for their smart devices as soon as possible.
And the Kuwaiti newspaper, Al-Qabas, reported that there is a serious vulnerability that was found in the iMessage service on iPhone phones, which prompted Apple to advise phone users to update their devices immediately.
This came after researchers warned that the Israeli spyware company, NSO Group, had developed a way to control almost any computer, watch, or iPhone made by Apple.
The American company, Apple, had announced the fixing of an information defect that was exploited by the Pegasus program to hack iPhone phones, despite all the precautionary measures taken, in new evidence that no company, no matter how advanced in technology, is immune from espionage practices.
This spying software, developed by the Israeli company NSO was able to hack Apple devices without resorting to links or booby-traps, which is the method usually adopted to carry out activities of this kind.
The flaw was detected last week, thanks to researchers from the Citizen Lab group, who discovered that the iPhone had been hacked by Apple's iMessage chat service. This cybersecurity group affiliated with the University of Toronto reported that Pegasus has been exploiting this flaw since at least February 2021.
And revealed that this problem affects the group of images in Apple, targeting its operating systems for Mac computers, and Watch smartwatches.


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Apple has created an HTML5 Showcase that presents its vision for the next generation of the web. Interesting combination of video, audio, typography, transitions, filters, and 360 spins. It works perfectly on my Mac using Snow Leopard and Safari, and works on my iPhone, and my iPad … however, when I wanted to try it on my Google Chrome, which is actually even better suited for html5, I found that Apple blocks it.read more
Posts related to Apple
Thank you Gigaom So I’m an iPhone user, and so are most of my friends … but I really think the new gold mine is Android; I was playing with the HTC Hero and Samsung Moment today, Droid Eric over the weekend, and can’t wait to get my hands on a Nexus One … With 50 new Android phones coming out this year, an open app eco-system, and 4G coming out this year, I really can’t wait to see the outcome …read more
Adobe demoed Flash 10 runtime for mobile back at Adobe Max 2008 on the Android platform, the Windows mobile and the Symbian platform. During the keynote, I remember that Kevin Lynch mentioned that Adobe has been working on Flash for the iPhone without much Apple support …
The ongoing debate over Flash on the iPhone appears to be over after Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen announced last week at the World Economic Forum that Adobe and Apple are working together in an effort to bring Flash to the iPhone.
While Narayen didn’t answer the question of whether Apple had strengthened its commitment to putting Flash on the iPhone he did point out that the ball was now in Adobe’s court. “We have the developer kit and the onus is now on us,” he said.
During the Bloomberg interview, Narayen said that Adobe plans to have over a million devices shipped by the end of the year that have Flash and he’s not just talking iPhone; the company is working on the Android platform, the Windows mobile and the Symbian platform.read more
I decided to start a new trend and post something perfect for those Friday’s EOD when you can’t wait to go home and relax… Every Friday I’ll post the latest or most watched viral videos… Fresh content for your entertainment.
Heineken - Walk in Fridgeread more
Apple just released two new “Get a Mac” spots mocking Microsoft’s $350 million advertising investment. Although I do like the new “I’m a PC” spots and the “Windows without walls” or “Life without walls” messages, I always find the “Get a Mac” ads hilarious.read more
The main difference between the gPhone and the iPhone is that with Android, apps won’t be subjected to this (click to zoom in).read more


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Freshpet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FRPT) – Imperial Capital issued their Q2 2017 earnings per share (EPS) estimates for shares of Freshpet in a report released on Thursday. Imperial Capital analyst G. Kelly anticipates that the company will post earnings per share of ($0.07) for the quarter. Imperial Capital has a “In-Line” rating and a $16.50 price objective on the stock. Imperial Capital also issued estimates for Freshpet’s Q3 2017 earnings at $0.01 EPS, Q4 2017 earnings at $0.04 EPS, FY2017 earnings at ($0.10) EPS, Q1 2018 earnings at ($0.08) EPS, Q2 2018 earnings at ($0.09) EPS, Q3 2018 earnings at $0.08 EPS, Q4 2018 earnings at $0.12 EPS, FY2018 earnings at $0.04 EPS and FY2019 earnings at $0.18 EPS.
A number of other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on FRPT. Zacks Investment Research upgraded shares of Freshpet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $20.00 price target for the company in a research report on Monday. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and set a $20.00 price objective (up from $14.00) on shares of Freshpet in a research note on Thursday, July 20th. Credit Suisse Group raised their price objective on shares of Freshpet from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 5th. Finally, ValuEngine raised shares of Freshpet from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, June 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. The company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $15.07.
Freshpet (NASDAQ FRPT) opened at 17.45 on Monday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $16.14 and a 200 day moving average price of $12.82. The stock’s market cap is $554.91 million. Freshpet has a 52 week low of $7.60 and a 52 week high of $18.25.
In related news, CEO William B. Cyr purchased 7,300 shares of Freshpet stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 18th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $13.75 per share, with a total value of $100,375.00. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer now owns 75,532 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,038,565. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Scott James Morris sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $16.73, for a total transaction of $83,650.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 207,307 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,468,246.11. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 45,125 shares of company stock valued at $666,758. 8.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.
Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Investment House LLC acquired a new stake in Freshpet during the second quarter valued at approximately $1,244,000. Bank of Montreal Can increased its stake in shares of Freshpet by 1.4% in the second quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 7,368 shares of the company’s stock valued at $122,000 after buying an additional 103 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Freshpet during the first quarter valued at approximately $122,000. Credit Suisse AG increased its stake in shares of Freshpet by 138.1% in the first quarter. Credit Suisse AG now owns 216,818 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,384,000 after buying an additional 125,768 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE increased its stake in shares of Freshpet by 4.9% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 295,409 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,250,000 after buying an additional 13,852 shares during the period. 61.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.
Freshpet, Inc is a manufacturer of fresh, refrigerated pet food distributed across North America. The Company operates in the segment of manufacturing, marketing and distribution of pet food and pet treats for dogs and cats. The Company’s products consist of dog food, cat food, and dog and cat treats.
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On the final day of the India Bridal Fashion Week, here's who showed up! Fashion, like everything else, hasn't been spared by Bollywood. Over the... ...http://www.rediff.com/getahead/report/slide-show-1-glamour-pics-evelyn-geeta-riya-abhishek-stars-at-india-bridal-week/20131205.htm
While Abhishek Bachchan arrived on the ramp for designer Rohit Bal, Genelia and Riteish Deshmukh had turned showstoppers for Neeta Lulla on the... ...http://daily.bhaskar.com/article/ENT-ria-sen-overdoes-makeup-prachi-desai-drashti-dhami-glam-up-avibfw-4454588-PHO.html?HF-12=
Cricketer Harbhajan Singh's alleged girlfriend Geeta Basra was spotted in a beautiful red dress at the event that complimented her hourglass figure... ...http://daily.bhaskar.com/article/ENT-ria-sen-overdoes-makeup-prachi-desai-drashti-dhami-glam-up-avibfw-4454588-PHO.html
South Indian silks aren't as regular on the red carpet as they were a decade ago. Designer gowns and cocktail dresses are what the current... ...http://www.vogue.in/content/best-dressed-south-india-special
Hubli:Barely two weeks after a Volvo bus caught fire en route to Hyderabad from the city on October 30 and charred 45 innocents to death, seven... ...http://www.asianage.com/india/special-7-more-die-will-we-ever-learn-602
Latest Sameera Reddy Photos,...
Tezz Review. Bollywood movie Tezz...


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USA TODAY has been curating their bestseller list for 20 years now. In looking back at it, they wonder: what does the list say about what we read, and how we read it?
For starters, we sure have changed.
Back then, when USA TODAY began its best-seller lists, "J.K. Rowling was a struggling unknown writer teaching English in Portugal" and "Suzanne Collins was helping to write a children's TV show for Nickelodeon called Clarissa Explains It All." Today, of course, they're household names -- all thanks to books. They have a combined total of 225 million copies in print of their two bestselling series, Harry Potter and The Hunger Games (in case you needed a reminder!).
A lot more has changed in the past 20 years, though. For instance:
- The rise and fall of self-help: "Self-help and other advice titles were big during the first five years (1993-1998) when most books were bought in physical bookstores."
- Children's books shocked the world: "Rowling triggered Dickens-like excitement about reading and demolished the conventional wisdom about children's books in the second era (1999-2008), when online sales grew."
- Unexpected genres and formats: "Since 2009, fiction (as a percentage of best sellers) has risen to all-time highs and erotica went mainstream as e-books became the fastest growing part of the market."
The story highlights Harry Potter as part of the "British kids' books" trend, noting how "Rowling's boy wizard zapped" the notion that kids' books had limited market appeal.
"Rowling reinvented the idea of a series," Scholastic's president and CEO Dick Robinson told USA TODAY. "Young kids love to read the same stories over and over again and older kids love to read new versions of the characters they know. What J.K. did so brilliantly was to age the characters in her books, so her readers grew up with them as the books became more complex."
Check out the whole story, and an awesome slidehow featuring some familiar photos, right here.
How would you say your reading has changed over the past two decades?


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The Samsung Galaxy Nexus is about as anticipated as any phone has ever been and it has proved just as difficult to pin down its release date.
Samsung and Google have kept
everyone guessing as to exactly when the Ice Cream Sandwich toting HD screened phone would be released in the UK.
We reported earlier in the week that Phones4u have an exclusive deal to sell the Nexus starting next week but there were also reports of stock shortages that would delay resellers and anyone other than Phones4u from selling the phone potentially until December as Amazon have been showing on the order page.
But don’t worry as we are happy to provide conclusive proof that you will soon be able to pick up a Galaxy Nexus on the 17th November from O2 and it will be available on contract and pay as you go.
O2 have used the new Google Plus pages for companies to show off their own Samsung Galaxy Nexus and as you can see from the screen shot they confirm in the comments that it will be available as planned (and as we reported earlier) on the original scheduled date of the November 17th.
Click on the photo to see the full content or head over to O2 in the UK on Google Plus.


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EBay Inc. is accusing Amazon.com Inc.’s sales reps of trying to poach sellers for its own marketplace through eBay’s messaging system.
EBay EBAY, +1.63% sent a cease-and-desist letter to Amazon AMZN, +0.68% on Monday to stop the alleged recruiting practice after determining roughly 50 Amazon sales representatives world-wide sent more than 1,000 messages to sellers on its platform, according to the letter, which was viewed by The Wall Street Journal, and a person familiar with the investigation.
EBay investigated the matter after a seller alerted the company about 10 days ago of someone using the messaging system on eBay’s site to convince this seller to move to Amazon, the person said.
In the cease-and-desist letter, eBay claims Amazon has violated California’s Comprehensive Computer Data Access and Fraud Act, a law covering computer crime, in addition to its own user agreement.
Other popular stories on WSJ:


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The Alumni Office and Publishing Concepts, Inc (PCI), the company printing the new 2012 Alumni Directory, will have it available at the end of October. Those alumni that that order books only can expect them to be delivered to their homes within the next two weeks. For those that ordered the CD or book/CD combo can expect those in three weeks. Any issues with orders can be handled by calling the customer service line at 1-800-982-1590. Thank you to all of those alumni that participated in the 2012 Alumni Directory.
For more on this and other stories, visit Bethany College's website.


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Direct Seafoods is proud to have won the Marine Stewardship Council Award for Fresh Fish Food Service Supplier of the Year 2021, recognising its commitment to sustainability, and the diverse range of products offered across the full range of hospitality and food service businesses.
The prestigious award was announced in a ceremony live-streamed from the National Marine Aquarium, Plymouth on 7 October.
Direct Seafoods is a national fish supplier made up of 11 regional fishmongers, working directly with fishing ports around the coast of Britain and overseas fisheries, supplying thousands of chefs and food service businesses.
The MSC Award recognises Direct Seafoods’ decision to put sustainability at the heart of its business. The company offers one of the largest ranges of MSC certified products, with more than 160 individual lines, along with support including, menu planning, recipes, training and regular market updates.
Laky Zervudachi, who has held the role of Direct Seafoods director of sustainability for more than 15 years, said: “We’re delighted to have won this award. It’s a tribute to the decision to put sustainability at the heart of our business, and to the hard work that all our teams around the country have put into demonstrating that the principles of sustainability are 100% compatible with being a successful fish and seafood supplier.
“It’s also a tribute to the chefs and caterers who make the choice day after day to put fresh, sustainable seafood at the heart of their menus. The hospitality and food service sector is diverse, and a big part of our success has been ensuring that we have an MSC certified product range that meets all their needs.
“Whether it’s fresh fillets and shellfish for Michelin-starred restaurants, gourmet fish cakes for gastropubs, cold water prawns for branded high street restaurants or breaded fish fingers for school caterers, the specialists at each of our depots tailor products to all those menus and more. By working closely with the fishing fleet, we can highlight changing availability and ensure the widest possible choice of fresh fish and seafood for all our customers, as well as make the most of every catch to reduce food waste as far as possible.
“Ultimately, the award is also a tribute to the many consumers who are willing to order a broader range of fish species out of home, and who factor sustainability into their eating out choices. As more younger consumers in particular adopt a flexitarian or pescatarian approach to their diet, they are reducing meat and increasingly opting for fish choices. These consumers also expect sustainability concerns to be factored in by chefs planning menus. That’s not a trend any business can afford to ignore for very long.”
Zervudachi added: “None of this means we can ever be complacent. We work very closely with our partners and continually audit the supply chain to ensure best sustainability practice. We alert our customers to fish and seafood species which are ‘red rated’ and should be avoided, but ultimately we believe the best approach is to support and encourage chefs and caterers to put sustainability at the heart of their buying and menu planning.”
The judging panel was led by MSC UK ambassador, restaurateur, chef and author, Mitch Tonks, along with CJ Jackson, chief executive of Billingsgate Seafood School, Marcus Coleman chief executive of Seafish and Dr Eleanor Adamson, Fisheries Programme Manager at the Fishmongers’ Company.
Seth McCurry, MSC senior commercial manager, UK & Ireland, said: Direct Seafoods has been a longstanding champion of sustainable seafood and supporter of the MSC programme. The company’s continued efforts to educate its customers about sustainability and offer an extensive range of certified species and products is commendable.
“The Direct Seafoods team has demonstrated strong commitment to driving progress of certified sustainable seafood within the UK foodservice sector. I am pleased to be able to recognise the tremendous contributions they have, and continue to make, in our 2021 MSC UK Awards.
For more information on Direct Seafoods’ approach to sustainability, see: https://www.
Press release issued on behalf of: Bidfresh www.bidfresh.co.uk
Further information: John Porter: email@example.com / 07734 054389
Ros Shiel: firstname.lastname@example.org / 07841 694137


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Billionaire investor Warren Buffett, double the bitcoin criticism. Bitcoin doesn’t have a unique value, “said Buffett in a” Squawk Box aw interview from CNBC to Becky Quick on Monday. “Basically a delusion.“
The CEO of Berkshire Hathaway expressed sympathy for the optimists who took the world’s largest crypto currency, hoping they would sem change their lives Berks. cryptocurrency was trading around $ 3,781 on Monday, according to CoinDesk.
It attracts the –charlatans- ,Buffett said. “If you do something fake by going out and selling yoyo or other things, there’s no money in it – but when you enter Wall Street you have a lot of money.”
Buffett has long been a cryptocurrency critic. 2018 Berkshire Hathaway named bitcoin “probably poisonous squares ın in front of its annual shareholders meeting. According to CNBC’s Warren Buffett Archive, the identifiers Buffett used for bitcoin include bit not currency Buff and tulips CN.
In an interview Monday, Bitcoin said it points to the potential in the ip key is basic technology block chain, but its success is not tied to the cryptocurrency. Buffett’s not alone in skepticism. Business leaders such as Bill Gates, economists Nouriel Roubini and Robert Shiller, fund managers Ray Dalio and Howard Marks are among those who question the legitimacy of bitcoin. J.P. Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon was also a bitcoin vocal critic. Still earlier this month, J.P. Morgan was the first major bank to initiate its own private currency for cross-border payments.
Warren Buffett, the third richest in the world, told reporters the “gambling machine” to Bitcoin and likened the coin to the button on his jacket. Bitcoin, after the reflection of these words Buffett’ın 200 dollars fell to 5500 band pulled back.
Referring to the Blockchain technology on which Bitcoin is built, Buffett pointed out that there are some promising aspects of blockchain technology:
Yok Blockchain is a huge technology but it doesn’t need Bitcoin. They’re asking me if you’re thinking about going into Blockchain. We’re probably doing the same job indirectly, but I’m still not going to be one of the leading people in the Blockchain field. Muhtemelen
The Buffett, known to almost everyone who doesn’t like Bitcoin, said in the past that Bitcoin was a Bit rat poison Bit. Also chairman of the Berkshire deputy chairman of the same opinion, he described the crypto money traders as mentally ill.
Buffett’s words affected Bitcoin’s price
Before Buffett made this statement, the price of Bitcoin was over $ 5700. Following the reflection of the legendary investor’s words to the press from 16.00 am today, the crypto money fell by $ 200 to $ 5500. Bitcoin is purchased and sold on Bitstamp at the time of broadcast (21.15) at $ 5574.
In other news, Anthony Pompliano, co-founder of Morgan Creek Digital, a crypto-currency investment company, reviewed Warren Buffett’s words.
Serv Bitcoin breaks the whole system that allows Buffett to form one of the greatest fortunes the world has ever seen, et said Pompliano, suggesting Buffett was afraid of Bitcoin. Bitcoin will give a number of people a level of richness Buffett would envy.


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The FAA plans to expand the use of iPads by its employees, according to a recent report. The agency is planning to develop its own apps and even its own app store. It will also look into adding Android tablets as well.
According to a report from AVWeb, the FAA has roughly 1,100 iPads in the hands of employees. While employees are currently barred from using their iPads to access official FAA networks, they are permitted to use them for email, as well as for using several custom apps produced by the FAA. The iPads have proven particularly useful to mechanics and lawyers. Mechanics can use the tablets to access technical manuals and to file parts requests. Use of iPads instead of desktop computers allows them to save time and increase efficiency. Likewise, tablets allow FAA attorneys to access files and record more quickly and easily. The FAA already has its own custom apps designed to cater to the needs of each group.
In light of the usefulness of iPads for productivity and efficiency, the FAA is planning to “broadly expand” its use of tablets. The agency said that by 2014, employees will have the option to replace their laptops with iPads or Android tablets.
Apple’s iOS platform is gaining a significant amount of traction with both government agencies and private businesses. In recent months the NOAA, the ATF, and Halliburton have all made the decision to switch from RIM’s BlackBerry platform to iOS, while the NSA has designed its own hyper-secure Android smartphone.
The report was not clear on whether FAA employees would be allowed to supply their own iPad (or Android tablet) or if they would be furnished by the agency.


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Too little, too late?
The Zune, Microsoft’s answer to the iPod, is finally coming to Canada … almost 18 months after launching in the U.S.
The portable music device will be available north of the border in the spring, according to an announcement at the Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas.
Will anyone care? Almost everyone in Canada already owns an iPod — or so it seems.
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Do you agree? Laura Ikeji says she has the biggest Fashion Store in Nigeria
Female fashionista, Laura Ikeji Kanu who is currently in London, took to her Instagram page, boasting about her owning the biggest fashion store in Nigeria.
The fashion blogger in her words “I Laura Ikeji, own the biggest fashion store/market in Nigeria. You don’t have to agree. Move on. Give me chance.”
What you say, comes to pass.


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Recycling Claims Victory at the 2020 Olympics
There were many memorable moments at the 2020 summer Olympic games in Japan. But behind the competition and triumphs, recycling of all sorts was taking place. Uniforms for torchbearers were made from recycled bottles from Coca-Cola. Some of the podiums made from recovered plastic waste from the oceans will be recycled into bottles. Medals were made using metals recovered from used mobile phones, cardboard beds will be recycled into paper products after use, and the Olympic torches were made from construction waste.
How can you become a recycling champion? Participate in curbside recycling to be part of the circular economy and reduce waste. It’s medal-worthy!


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Packaging ink suppliers are facing increased prices on pigment raw materials, petrochemical price increases, supply constraints, and higher freight cost due to the reduced availability of containers. This has resulted in significant pressure across the entire packaging ink industry; Siegwerk, a global provider of printing inks for packaging applications and labels, is not immune to the supply difficulty these issues have caused.
‘Already in 2021 we are seeing a combination of several factors which are interlinked with the Covid-19 crisis which has severely impacted the overall raw material supply chain,’ said Dr. Arash Babai, director of global purchasing for Siegwerk. ‘Our team is working hand-in-hand with our global supply chain to leverage its buying power and minimize risks to our customers.’
Prices around the globe have seen sharp increases in the first quarter for pigment raw materials, including titanium dioxide (TiO2). While the actual costs vary widely from region to region, higher than average per ton costs have been aggravated by significantly higher freight costs.
'Beyond these developments, we continue to see broader market momentum in other pigment categories, such as carbon blacks, metallics and colored pigments. In fact, we have received price increase notifications from multiple strategic suppliers,' added Dr. Babai.
Similar to pigments, petrochemical raw materials, which include UV resins, polyurethane resins, solvents and acrylic resins, have recently experienced higher prices beginning in Q2 2020. This is as a result of shortages of epoxy resins, higher demand for polypropylene glycol in flexible foams and acrylic acids, among other things.
According to Siegwerk, to ensure customers receive an uninterrupted supply of its inks and varnishes, Siegwerk’s global purchasing and procurement teams are monitoring raw material inventory levels and supplies. Both are in communication with local teams around the globe to manage any risk of a disruption of supply from Siegwerk to the market. ‘While the overall situation is constantly changing, Siegwerk Is devoting all available resources to ensure our supply to customers is uninterrupted,’ concluded Dr. Babai.


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JCB Toughphone re-launches brand
JCB Toughphone is launching two new rugged android smartphones. Returning to the market, the company says that it “led the creation of the rugged mobile phone sector back in 2007.”
New products include the Android 13-based Toughphone, and the Toughphone MAX. Discussing the devices, a spokesperson said: “The JCB Toughphone is tested to MIL-SPEC 810G and has an IP68 rating. It also comes with a Gorilla Glass screen, and rubber corners for extra protection.
“Meanwhile, [the MAX] takes the Toughphone concept to the extreme. It comes with 5G, 256GB ROM/8GB RAM and a 12,200mAh battery for up to a month’s standby.”
Discussing the products, Roy Taylor – leader of the team who developed the original Toughphone – said: “Our history with JCB goes back to 2007 when we launched the original JCB Toughphone. The new JCB Toughphone and Toughphone MAX epitomise the brand values of toughness and technology combined.”
Director of JCB Consumer Products, Matthew Seal, said “The JCB Toughphone range has been designed with our agricultural and construction customers in mind. JCB Toughphones will survive the rigors of hard work and come complete with a high-capacity battery, so there is no need to worry about finding a charging source when on the job”.
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Amazon Music introduced its high-definition listening tier last fall, and the service already has about 5 million songs in Ultra HD, the highest available digital streaming quality. Now, Amazon Music HD is further widening its catalog, thanks to new partnerships with Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group.
In a deal announced Friday (Oct. 2), Amazon Music will exclusively remaster “thousands” of songs and albums from the two label groups in Ultra HD. That includes Kid Cudi’s Man On The Moon: The End of Day, Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged in New York, Lady Gaga’s Joanne, Ariana Grande’s Yours Truly and 2 Chainz’ The Play Don’t Care who Makes It. Additionally, Amazon Music has remixed songs from artists like Eagles, Elton John, Linkin Park, Tom Petty, Grande, Gaga, Post Malone and more in 3D Audio formats, including Dolby Atmos and Sony 360RA.
“We launched Amazon Music HD last year with a promise to always offer our customers the best quality recording available for streaming,” said Amazon Music vice president Steve Boom. “With this partnership, we are building upon that promise by upgrading existing recordings to make the listening experience even better, and preserving artistic legacy for future generations.”
Amazon Music HD is available at $12.99 per month for Prime members, $14.99 per month for non-Prime customers or an additional $5 per month for current Amazon Music subscribers. Outside of the U.S., it is also available in the U.K,, Germany and Japan. The push to expand Amazon Music’s catalog of HD and 3D audio isn’t only to grow streaming subscribers, but also attract — and support — its smart speaker customers. Amazon’s $199 Echo Studio speaker incorporates Dolby Atmos technology and also supports HD and UltraHD audio formats, and its multidimensional audio experience has received widely positive reviews as Amazon’s best-sounding speaker at a price that’s still affordable for many consumers. But the proposition of buying the hardware and the HD streaming subscription — both of which are at higher price points than competing, lower-definition products — only works if there is an adequate library of music to enjoy.
Boom added that Amazon Music will continue working with more labels to upgrade the digital quality of audio recordings, “and provide customers with all of the emotion, power, clarity, and nuance of original recordings across all genres.”
“Amazon Music continues to push the boundaries in sound fidelity and innovation, and we’re thrilled to partner with them to accelerate the availability of our catalog in the highest quality formats possible and to provide new experiences in immersive audio,” said Universal Music Group executive vp of digital strategy Michael Nash. “Our announcement today is the next big step in an ongoing partnership and music fans on Amazon Music HD can look forward to incredible new ways to experience the latest releases, as well as their favorite songs from Universal Music Group and our labels.”
In January, Amazon Music announced that it had reached 55 million customers worldwide, although it does not specify how many subscribers are signed up to HD.
“We’re always excited about new opportunities for fans to experience music in the highest sound quality available, exactly as the artist intended,” added Warner Music Group president of global catalog and recorded music Kevin Gore. “With Amazon Music HD, 3D Audio, and with the Echo Studio, music lovers are now able to immerse themselves in the original recordings at an unprecedented level of fidelity for a price that had previously been out of range.”


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Jan 17, 2012 12:22 PM by Sharon Knight
Fast food chain Burger King is getting into the delivery business. The restaurant is now delivering food to customers in Virginia and Maryland. It quietly began rolling out delivery services at nine of its stores, and says it plans to add another six stores by next week.
There's no word yet on when the delivery service will spread nationwide.


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Pretty lights, Santa and his elves, and loads of presents are nothing new to four Canon-McMillan foreign exchange students. Thanks to American movies, the students had some idea what to expect while celebrating their first Christmas in the states.
But as they prepared to sit down to Christmas Eve dinner with their host families, they couldn’t help but notice the stark differences – and similarities – between their traditional customs and ours.
With their hometowns scattered across Europe and Asia, Arja Slaatten, Glasha Stekolva, Sofya Sarkisova and Cecilia Laposchan were intrigued by what they experienced thus far. The nonstop preparation, baking and the exchange of Christmas cards took the girls, from Norway, Russia, Turkmenistan and Germany, respectively, by surprise since they said Christmas just isn’t really a big deal where they’re from.
“Our Christmases are pretty much the same,” Slaatten, a senior, said. “But it’s not a big deal. New Year’s is the bigger deal.”
“Most people don’t pay attention to Christmas,” Stekolva, a junior, said. “My family does. We go to church at midnight and have dinner.”
While their families gather to decorate their trees and homes, there is less emphasis on the jolly red-clad man and more on the meaning behind the celebration.
“All the stores are closed after Christmas,” Laposchan, a junior, said. “It’s a time to relax. It’s a time to be with family.”
In Turkmenistan, Sarkisova said the majority of people are Muslim, and the Christmas holiday is celebrated by only a few.
“I’m Armenian, so we celebrate Christmas, but it is not a national holiday,” the senior said. “Our big holiday is New Year’s. It’s like Christmas here.”
Elves, stockings, the big man’s sleigh and the North Pole also are out. The girls said their version of Santa travels alone or with a granddaughter or snow maiden figure.
“She helps him deliver the packages,” Sarkisova said.
Once Christmas has passed, the girls said they start gearing up for the bigger celebration.
“We don’t call them Christmas trees,” Stekolva said. “We call them New Year’s trees. And we don’t start decorating months in advance. Maybe two weeks before. There are so many lights here. People start decorating so early.”
Like our New Year’s pork and sauerkraut, the girls said there’s a variety of foods that are important or customary to serve in their countries when welcoming the New Year.
In Russia, Stekolva said it’s not New Year’s without Russian salad, a mixture of sausage, potatoes, green beans, dressing, eggs and onions. As a part of all the girls’ customs, meat and fish are big parts of their dinners. Sweets are limited.
“We have them, but they are a bigger deal here,” Laposchan said.
While they are sure to miss their families this holiday season, the girls said they are looking forward to teaching their host families about their customs. Stekolva said her host family will celebrate Russian Christmas with her Jan. 7. Slaatten said she looks forward to cooking a traditional Norway Christmas meal, once she receives the goodies from back home.
To help ease they uneasiness of being away, if there is any, Rosa Few, who is hosting Laposchan, has planned a way for both families to be together this evening.
“Cecilia is very excited to experience Christmas here,” Few, of Canonsburg, said. “But she wanted to see her family. So we are going to Skype during our celebrations. It will be the best of both worlds. She will get to see everyone.”


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Google’s “Facebook killer” came a step closer to reality Wednesday, when it was revealed that the company has been talking with game makers for potential inclusion of their wares on a new social network.
Originally brought to light by a tweet last month from Digg Founder Kevin Rose, the new “Google Me” offering could include games from Playdom, Electronic Arts’ Playfish, and Zynga Game Network, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal, which cited “people familiar with the matter.”
No information was available as to when Google would launch the new initiative, and Google declined TechNewsWorld’s request for comment, noting simply that the company does not comment on rumor or speculation.
‘They Need New Ad Revenue’
“This is all about ad revenues, nothing else,” Lon Safko, social media entrepreneur, consultant and coauthor of The Social Media Bible, told TechNewsWorld.
Facebook claims 500 million members, after all, and “that’s a lot of missed ad rev” for Google, Safko pointed out.
“Facebook has figured it out,” he explained. “Get the traffic, sell the ads and even-split the ad rev with its members. It’s what Google has been doing on the public side.”
Google, in fact, recently disappointed Wall Street with below-estimated profits for its last quarter, Safko added. “They need to find a large source of new ad revenue. Where better than to try to tap into the [500 million] member base at Facebook?”
‘He Doesn’t Need Google’
“If I were Google, I would try to build a strategic alliance with Zuckerberg and provide the ad engine for Facebook,” Safko suggested. “Do what each does best: Facebook, build membership; and Google, sell advertising.”
On the other hand, “I am sure that Zuckerberg already has a good handle on ad sell implementation, so he doesn’t need Google,” he added. “If all that is true, then Google has no choice but go head-to-head with Facebook and re-invent the Facebook wheel and directly compete.”
To date, however, “Google hasn’t been effective at bringing copycat products successfully to market,” Safko noted. “Unless Google can offer something astonishing that isn’t available at Facebook, then I don’t see Google’s venture succeeding.”
Going Beyond Buzz
Indeed, Google is not exactly a stranger to the world of social networking. Its Buzz product, for example, launched earlier this year, only to be deflated early on by a raft of privacy concerns.
Then, too, there’s Orkut, which has gained significant popularity in India and Brazil.
The new social-networking service would “incorporate and go beyond Buzz,” The Wall Street Journal reported.
‘Project Management Leader, Games’
A heavy emphasis on games, meanwhile, would make developers less dependent on Facebook for reaching the growing masses of interested consumers, the publication noted.
Though it hasn’t been announced officially, Google recently invested more than US$100 million in Zynga, maker of the widely popular Farmville game, TechCrunch reported earlier this month.
It also recently advertised a job opening for a “Project Management Leader, Games.”
‘Maybe Very Smart’
“The report and rumors that surfaced before the WSJ article suggest that games will be a way into a competitive social offering for Google,” Greg Sterling, founder and principal with Sterling Market Intelligence, told TechNewsWorld. “That’s very interesting and maybe very smart, depending on its execution.”
Gaming will not, however, “define the full scope of Google’s social ambitions,” Sterling opined.
‘More on the White Board’
“Google has several social initiatives living side by side, and the company, if it is to succeed, will need to figure out how to integrate or consolidate some of them and where to put emphasis,” he explained. “One of the areas of vulnerability identified for Facebook (by Google) was the inability to regulate exposure according to trust circles or groups — family vs. friends vs. co-workers.
“This ‘hierarchy of trust’ wouldn’t likely be expressed fully in a gaming environment,” Sterling pointed out, “so I suspect Google has a good deal more on the white board.”


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Ethereum’s value against bitcoin has finally began rising this week with some big jumps as pictured above.
Ethereum’s price against bitcoin increased by 10%, up from circa 17 mBTC to more than 19.
That indicates ethereum’s price against the dollar has risen more than that of bitcoin even while both see considerable gains this week with eth rising 20% against USD and 9% for BTC.
When zoomed out on daily candles, the picture looks a bit different and quite interesting.
There’s the flippening fomo during summer 2017. The dull of autumn and early winter as bitcoin roars. The anger of eth in January 2018 and then there’s only a brief respite during spring of that year in a dead cat bounce.
Since then, ethereum’s price against bitcoin has only seen downwards, but for months now it has been pretty stable at current levels since summer last year.
So the real news here is not that the ratio rises, but that it doesn’t fall. The latter would probably even make a better title, but this longest ever period of stability might perhaps suggest there isn’t much room down there.
Upwards of course there’s plenty of room, even 10x, with the big question being whether this is a movement that remains within that stupendously long straight line, or the beginning of an upwards trend.
Only time can answer that one, and there are arguments for both. In bitcoin’s favor there’s halvening, and that brings a big drop in inflation which thus significantly changes the fundamentals.
Yet at least narratively there’s been an even bigger change for eth as the plan now is to discard the miners completely maybe next year or in two years, as opposed to keeping them in a hybrid Proof of Work (PoW) and Proof of Stake (PoS) mess.
This streamlining makes a lot of things simpler and far more importantly reduces inflation from a current circa 5% to basically 0.
Things are in flux in eth so the above is probably tentative, but the PoS boneless testnets are now out with stakers rolling on it, so if this thing works, then there isn’t much of a reason to keep miners around, and if the network is run only by stakers, then 0.22% total inflation is enough to secure the network.
The full testnet, with bones and everything, should now hopefully go out in a couple of months. That’s when we get an even better idea of what the skeleton new blockchain will look like.
This considerable proposed change in base economics might be one reason for the recent rise in the ratio, with another one perhaps being front-running calculations in as far as eth has fallen a lot more than bitcoin so perhaps it has more room to rise.
Then there’s the whole defi innovation going on which probably won’t make it to bitcoin until Blockstream is kicked out because they’ll want all that on the centralized custodian blockchain which they control, Liquid.
By the time bitcoin gets to it in any event, eth’s open space would probably be miles ahead with innovation in bitcoin more… in punkness would be a good way of describing it.
Finally among many other things worthy of mentioning, ethereum has noticed Boris Johnson’s promise to get gigabit internet to the villages of Engaland, so they’re kind of not-raising the blocksize in their now simplified sharding plans.
Also worthy of mentioning, the eth1 maintainer who soon might be far less busy since that chain is to be discarded, might find more time to focus on pruning which is a very difficult but potentially an actual long term solution to the problem of ever growing blockchain data.
Meaning one potentially can see some light at the end of the tunnel, but time will tell.


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AMD Next-Gen 5nm Ryzen 7000 desktop processors for the AM5 platform would be launched as early as September 2022
AMD is expected to introduce its next-generation Ryzen 7000 desktop processors based on the 5nm Zen 4 architecture and respective AM5 platform as early as September 2022, reports DigiTimes.
AMD Ryzen 7000 desktop processors with next-gen Zen 4 cores and AM5 platform will be available in September 2022
AMD Ryzen 7000 desktop processors and the AM5 platform are highly anticipated by many as it is an all-new ecosystem designed for the next generation of gamers and content creators. The AMD Ryzen 7000 desktop processors will first bring gamers the company’s brand new Zen 4 core technology based on the 5nm process node and will also roll out the new AM5 platform which offers a host of new features such as DDR5 and PCIe Gen 5.0 support among several other technologies.
According to DigiTimes industry sources, AMD is expected to introduce its next-gen Ryzen 7000 desktop processors and AM5 platform as early as September 2022. That would mean the launch could take place within the next four months, but that Said, AMD is also expected to reveal more details at Computex 2022, which will be a major event for Zen 4.
AMD Ryzen ‘Zen 4’ Desktop Processor Expected Features:
- New Zen 4 processor cores (IPC / architectural improvements)
- Brand New TSMC 5nm Process Node with 6nm IOD
- Supported on AM5 platform with LGA1718 socket
- Dual channel DDR5 memory support
- 28 PCIe lanes (CPU exclusive)
- TDP 65-120W (upper limit range ~170W)
We’re not only supposed to get more performance details, but AMD is also expected to share more detailed demos and a better look at its AM5 platform. So much so that the company has already given the go-ahead for board partners to showcase their first AM5 products (albeit in prototype stage) on the show floor. It just sucks that due to all the pandemic restrictions and regulations, we decided not to visit Computex this year, otherwise we would have given you our hands on these next-gen motherboards. More information on AMD Ryzen 7000 “Raphael” processors here.
We also managed to get some new details regarding the AMD AM5 platform which will be comprised of the new LGA 1718 socket motherboards. we also expect to see a slightly improved version of the best X670 chipset, currently called X670E. We don’t know the exact details of this chipset but rest assured they are based on a chiplet design. That said, the actual launch event will take place a few months later, where AMD will announce the actual Ryzen 7000 processors along with their prices. It seems like an event close to Gamescom 2022 would make perfect sense, but for now, we’re looking forward to AMD’s big reveal at Computex 2022.
Comparison of AMD Mainstream Desktop processor generations:
|AMD processor family||Code name||Process Processor||Processors Cores/Threads (Max)||PDT||Platform||Chipset Platform||Memory support||PCIe support||To throw|
|Ryzen 1000||summit ridge||14nm (Zen 1)||8/16||95W||AM4||300 series||DDR4-2677||Generation 3.0||2017|
|Ryzen 2000||Pinnacle Ridge||12nm (Zen+)||8/16||105W||AM4||400 series||DDR4-2933||Generation 3.0||2018|
|Ryzen 3000||Matisse||7nm (Zen 2)||16/32||105W||AM4||500 Series||DDR4-3200||Generation 4.0||2019|
|Ryzen 5000||Vermeer||7nm (Zen 3)||16/32||105W||AM4||500 Series||DDR4-3200||Generation 4.0||2020|
|Ryzen 5000 3D||Warhol?||7nm (Zen 3D)||8/16||105W||AM4||500 Series||DDR4-3200||Generation 4.0||2022|
|Ryzen 7000||Raphael||5nm (Zen 4)||16/32?||105-170W||AM5||600 series||DDR5-5200/5600?||Generation 5.0||2022|
|Ryzen 7000 3D||Raphael||5nm (Zen 4)||16/32?||105-170W||AM5||600 series||DDR5-5200/5600?||Generation 5.0||2023|
|Ryzen 8000||granite ridge||3nm (Zen 5)?||To be determined||To be determined||AM5||700 series?||DDR5-5600+||Generation 5.0||2024-2025?|


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Time Magazine has chosen several automation technologies in its selection of what it considers the top 25 inventions of 2017.
Although it doesn’t seem to have listed them in any numerical order, it did place the Jibo home robot at the top.
Jibo is not mobile in the way many home robots are, but its top part moves as it speaks.
Jibo is designed as an interactive companion and helper to families, according to its creator Cynthia Breazeal (main picture), who was interviewed by Spectrum, the IEEE website.
Continue reading Time Magazine picks several automation technologies in its top 25 inventions of the year
Ansaldo STS says its technology and delivery capability were key to the success of mining giant Rio Tinto’s fully autonomous freight rail trial.
Ansaldo is a specialist supplier of driverless technology for metro, rail solutions.
The company says it has now proven its expertise in autonomous heavy freight rail, following Rio Tinto’s recent successful trial of Australia’s first fully autonomous heavy haul train journey (main picture). Continue reading Rio Tinto demonstrates autonomous freight train featuring Ansaldo technology
Pepperl+Fuchs has launched a new 2D absolute positioning system which the company provides “maximum reliability, large reading window and codes” to enhance performance.
Pepperl+Fuchs says its new PXV 2-D absolute positioning system sets “new performance benchmarks” when it comes to reliability and handling.
With its large reading window, the system keeps a sufficient number of codes in view, even in relation to track switches and changes to the code tape, syas the company. Continue reading Pepperl+Fuchs launches new 2D absolute positioning system
Semiconductor company Xilinx is to showcase its latest solutions for factory automation, smart grid and robotics applications at SPS IPC Drives 2017.
More specifically, XIlinx says it provides scalable and comprehensive “all-programmable” industrial internet of things platforms from edge to cloud. Continue reading Xilinx to showcase innovations for industrial IoT solutions at SPS IPC Drives
A company called Iconics has integrated its human-machine interface with RealWear’s head-mounted industrial wearable which could be described as being like smart glasses (main picture).
Iconics is a software developer which provides a range of HMI and supervisory control and data acquisition solutions, as well as data analytics and energy management.
Iconics says it provides web-enabled OPC UA and BACnet certified visualization, analytics, and mobile solutions for energy, manufacturing, industrial or building automation applications. Continue reading Iconics integrates human machine interface with ‘head-mounted wearable’ like smart glasses
Company says new robot is enabled through advanced torque servo module and master maneuvering system
Toyota has revealed the third generation of its humanoid robot, the T-HR3, designed and developed by its Partner Robot business unit.
The company’s aim seems to be to market the robot for use in the home, perhaps for elderly care or companionship, but says it can also be applied in industrial sectors such as healthcare, construction and disaster recovery. (See video below.)
Toyota says its latest robotics platform will explore new technologies for safely managing physical interactions between robots and their surroundings, and it features a new remote maneuvering system that mirrors user movements to the robot.
Toyota says the T-HR3 reflects the company’s broad-based exploration of how advanced technologies can help to meet people’s unique mobility needs. Continue reading Toyota unveils its third-generation humanoid robot T-HR3
Siemens is strengthening its digitalization offerings – in particular, its product lifecycle management platform – through a new acquisition.
Siemens has reached an agreement to acquire Solido Design Automation, a provider of machine learning-based variation-aware design and characterization software.
Siemens says the purchase will strengthen the integrated circuit design and verification technologies it already offers through Mentor, a previous acquisition. Continue reading Siemens acquires integrated circuit software developer Solido Design Automation to strengthen its digital offerings
A Chinese collaborative robot manufacturing startup company called Aubo has raised $9 million in funding from Fosun.
Fosun is a conglomerate based in China with a widely diversified investment portfolio.
Fosun has previously invested in Aubo and believes the cobot maker has the potential to become a “unicorn”, a startup with a valuation of $1 billion or above. Continue reading Chinese collaborative robot maker Aubo Robotics raises $9 million in funding
Locus Robotics has raised $25 million in its latest funding round.
Locus makes autonomous, mobile robots for use in e-commerce fulfillment warehouses, today announced it has secured $25 million in Series B funding led by Scale Venture Partners, a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm investing in the future of work.
Existing investors also participated in the round. Continue reading Locus Robotics raises another $25 million in funding
Beckhoff Automation has partnered with IAConnects and Arkessa to integrate internet of things technologies to facilities management.
Global mass urbanisation seems to be an unstoppable trend which brings with it significant challenges for municipal authorities, insurance companies and facilities management.
Beckhoff says its partnership with Arkessa and IAConnects will help address these challenges. Continue reading Beckhoff, IAConnects and Arkessa taking IoT to facilities management
By Edward Tse, Gao Feng Advisory
A growing number of privately owned Chinese companies have been achieving exponential growth and successfully transforming their businesses.
Many of them however remain relatively unknown in the West.
Unlike famous Chinese internet companies like Alibaba Group Holding and Tencent Holdings and the latest crop of startups with skyrocketing valuations. Continue reading Analysis: A new narrative of Chinese corporate growth
Each year, in cooperation with the trade journals Vision Systems Design and Inspect, industrial imaging company Framos identifies technical and commercial trends in the industry based on users’ and manufacturers’ views.
For this 10th market study, 90 manufacturers and users from 22 countries responded to questions about the status quo of the imaging market, and its ongoing development.
In the age of automation and the smart factory, classic machine vision is the cornerstone of success for the Imaging industry.
CMOS technology and fast processing are enabling real-time precision, while cognitive vision solutions using artificial intelligence are the bases for further growth. Continue reading New study: Industrial cameras, technical features, and market
HMS Industrial has demonstrated a range of human-machine interfaces on the Vuzix smart glasses platform.
Vuzix is a supplier of smart glasses and augmented reality technologies and products for the consumer and enterprise markets.
HMS is provider of industrial networking and remote management solutions. Continue reading HMS demonstrates human-machine interface solutions on the Vuzix smart glasses platform
OR Laser has launched its new hybrid metal additive and subtractive manufacturing platform, the ORLas Creator Hybrid, and unveiled its new cloud manufacturing services at this year’s FormNext event.
FormNext, is into its final day in Frankfurt, and it’s where the great and the good of the 3D printing and additive manufacturing industry congregate.
Traditionally the latest additive manufacturing developments are unveiled at FormNext, and this year has been bigger and better than years gone by, according to some visitors. Continue reading OR Laser launches new hybrid metal additive and subtractive manufacturing platform
Adient, a provider of automotive seating, has broken ground on a new automotive seating prototyping and testing facility in Pune that the company says will be “the largest of its kind ever to be built in India”.
Construction of the new facility marks a major expansion of Adient’s existing technical center in Pune, already a world-class facility with the largest workforce among the automotive seating suppliers global network of tech centers.
The new facility, which is scheduled to open in late 2018, will provide physical testing to augment the capabilities of the existing technical center in Pune, a global Center of Competence at Adient for computer-aided engineering, computer-aided design automation and finite element analysis simulation expertise. Continue reading Adient breaks ground on ‘largest-ever’ automotive seats prototyping and testing facility in India


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China raises bigger trade questions than who will buy our soybeans and cars
Opinion: The old strategic framework guiding U.S. relations with China has blown up. It will be hard to assess a trade deal without a replacement.
Chinese strongman Xi Jinping appears willing to make concessions to get Donald Trump off his back on trade.
Markets react to any indication that a trade peace may be at hand with glee, and to counterindications with gloom.
But a trade deal, should one be forthcoming, will be difficult to assess without the context of a larger strategic framework about relations with China. Given existing internal Chinese dynamics, what kind of relationship is desirable or possible?
We hoped China wouldn't become a threat
Since market reforms were initiated by Deng Xiaoping four decades ago, there has been a strategic framework that guided relations with China, including on trade. In fact, trade was the primary instrument of the rest of U.S. policy.
As China became more prosperous, the thinking went, its behavior in other arenas – such as territorial disputes – would become less worrisome. And trade with industrialized democracies was the quickest way for China to become more prosperous.
There was a faint hope that China could evolve into democratic capitalism. But that, obviously, would be a very long and uncertain haul. The more realistic expectation was that China’s growth economically and otherwise could be non-threatening, as Chinese leaders vowed it would be.
That expectation is what led industrialized democracies to open their markets to China and invite it into the World Trade Organization. At the time, China did not permit the kind of access to its internal markets to outsiders that WTO rules require. So, the invitation was premature, but made based on the expectation of the strategic framework.
The desire by Western businesses to gain a foothold in the Chinese market, with its enormous potential, was also a factor in prematurely inducting China into the rules-based international trade system on equal footing.
Xi has blown up our strategy
Xi has blown up this strategic framework.
China had rotating leadership. The guy at the top had a 10-year run and rivals for influence. Xi has made himself leader for life, consolidated power and made his vision synonymous to that of the entire nation.
Xi’s vision isn’t compatible with the expectation of the old strategic framework that increasing prosperity through trade could render China’s growing economic and geopolitical clout unthreatening.
Xi has reinforced the centrality of the Communist Party to every aspect of Chinese life, with himself having a tight grip on the reins.
The role of businesses, regardless of whether nominally state-owned or private, is to serve the state, which is coextensive with the party, which is coextensive with Xi.
And far from being constrained in geopolitics by economics and trade, Xi sees them as instruments to advance China’s geopolitical ambitions. He seeks economic dominance in certain sectors as much to gain geopolitical muscle as to raise the living standards of the Chinese people.
Trump practices a similar nationalism
As a practitioner of mercantilist nationalism, Xi has run into another one in Trump.
Trump has imposed tariffs on Chinese goods and threatened even deeper and broader ones. China is now talking about buying more U.S. goods, lowering its own tariffs, better respecting intellectual property, and providing greater access to Chinese markets for foreign companies.
At present, there is no reason to believe that any of these concessions, or any others that might be promised, would be real or enduring. They conflict with Xi’s vision for China and the domestic retrogression he has imposed.
Does that mean that no trade deal with China can possibly serve U.S. interests?
Without a replacement strategic framework, that’s a difficult question to answer.
How do we deal with Xi's China?
The assumption should be that Xi will remain in power and that his vision will guide long-term Chinese behavior, irrespective of what agreements may be signed or temporary measures taken.
If the expectation that trade will make China’s rise less threatening is no longer realistic, can its behavior still be modified enough to make engagement worthwhile? Or does the United States need to insulate our capital and consumer markets from China to the extent possible, as I tend to believe?
What is the relationship the U.S. should seek with an economically potent, mercantilist China, with geopolitical ambitions and under one-man rule?
That is the question our leaders should be trying to answer. Not how many soybeans the Chinese will buy or how many cars we can sell them.
Reach Robb at firstname.lastname@example.org.
MORE ROBB COLUMNS:
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- Make Clean Elections the campaign finance cop
- Will climate change solve itself?


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The Uncertain Impacts of Trade Wars on Harley and Huawei
Harley Davidson Key Points:
- Harley Davidson releases their 2019 Q1 earnings on Tuesday
- President Donald Trump’s tweets seem to have had an impact on Harley Davidson’s stock price in the past
- The tariff on Europe may continue to have a negative impact on Harley Davidson
On Tuesday, the famous motorcycle manufacturer, Harley Davidson, will release their first quarter earnings for 2019. Investors will look to their report to see how they have performed following the disapproval of US President Trump.
Last June, President Trump was not one to hide his thoughts on the company’s decision to move their plant overseas - expressing his disappointment in the company’s decision to leave the US. The decision came after the U.S increased import tariffs on Europe from 6% to 31%, resulting in a 90-100 million dollar loss for Harley Davidson.
Since President Trump’s tweets, Harley Davidson has experienced a drop in their sales and stock performance. In the third quarter of 2018, worldwide sales dropped to -7.8%. However, when looking at their international sales (excluding the US), Harley Davidson increased sales by 2.6%. The increase did not last long. In the 4th quarter, they continued to struggle when international sales declined by 2.6% from the previous quarter.
After President Trump encouraged Harley Davidson clients to boycott their company last August, the company’s stock witnessed a drop. With Harley due to report earnings tomorrow, markets will get an updated look at the trade war's impact on the company. Similarly, another company caught in between the trade war was Huawei, who recently released their earnings report indicating a 39% increase in sales for the first quarter. However, the US government is still trying to get other nations to avoid purchasing from the company due espionage risk.
Both Harley Davidson and Huawei are facing ire from the US and President Trump, yet Harley Davidson has been negatively impacted whereas Huawei experienced a great quarter. However, since Huawei is a privately held company, they have not been audited. As April 29 approaches, US and Chinese officials prepare for their meeting in Beijing to continue trade war negotiations, potentially bringing an end to the US-China trade war.
Written by Nancy Pakbaz, CFA
Follow Nancy on Twitter @NancyPakbazFX
DailyFX provides forex news and technical analysis on the trends that influence the global currency markets.


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Nike Announces Kapernick in New Ad, Suffers Devastating Economic Defeat the Next Day
The people have spoken.
As I’ve written before, boycotts just seem to work a lot better when spearheaded by conservatives as opposed to liberals. Recent history has shown that to be true yet again.
Nike stock fell by 3.2 percent on Tuesday, less than 24 hours after the company unveiled the Kaepernick ad. That figure may not seem large, in and of itself, but it amounts to a total market capitalization drop of nearly $4.2 billion dollars for the company.
While the far left flounders to dissuade people from eating at In-N-Out Burger, for the sole reason that the California-based burger chain dared to donate to Republicans, it took conservatives all of a day to put a noticeable dent in apparel titan Nike.
Regardless of how you felt about the price, quality or branding of Nike, for years it had always been a generally inoffensive apparel company. Yes, its marketing tends to skew toward “trying to be edgy,” but it was hardly boycott-worthy.
That is, until the company decided to thrust the polarizing Colin Kaepernick front and center for its 30th anniversary ad campaign.
Believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything. #JustDoIt pic.twitter.com/SRWkMIDdaO
— Colin Kaepernick (@Kaepernick7) September 3, 2018
No matter how you feel about Colin Kaepernick, his anthem protests, his anti-police and pro-dictator rhetoric and clothing choice (he infamously wore socks depicting cops as pigs and, on a separate occasion, a T-shirt shirt emblazoned with the image of former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro) you have to admit that he is a divisive figure.
After all, while Kaepernick obviously has his supporters, he has just as many detractors who find his message to be anti-American and extremely disrespectful to the men and women who serve this country.
After disrespecting our nation and anthem, first-kneeling former QB Colin Kaepernick is now the face of #Nike even though he is no longer part of #NFL. https://t.co/H5Qtt6hlNk @mvespa1 via @townhall #TeaParty
— Tea Party Patriots (@TPPatriots) September 4, 2018
That displeasure with Kaepernick kicked off an immediate #BoycottNike movement, primarily led by conservatives, when Nike revealed its big collaboration with the NFL’s most famous malcontent.
Done with Nike for life! #BoycottNike
— Doug Hamburger (@DougBurger1man) September 4, 2018
Just sold mutual funds that had nike stock. I have 3 pair of Nike shoes currently and countless workout apparel. I'll never buy Nike again in my lifetime. #BoycottNike#ScrewNike
— DavetheWave (@WaveDavethe) September 4, 2018
From all indications, it wasn’t just Twitter user “DavetheWave” who ditched Nike stock. Countless others must have followed suit because Nike’s stock took an overnight tumble.
In other words, just the likelihood of an effective conservative boycott of the company had investors more than a little skittish.
The effectiveness of a boycott is certainly subjective. After all, despite the 3.2 percent dip, Nike’s stock has still grown a healthy 31 percent in 2018, according to Bloomberg.
But the fact that conservative voices can deal a blow, no matter the size, to a massive company like Nike shows the power of a conservative-led boycott.
CNN is reporting that Nike investors are not happy with the Kaepernick ad. Whether the reasoning is moral, fiscal or both, they have every right to be.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article stated that Nike had lost 2.7 percent of its share value with a resultant drop in market cap of “hundreds of millions of dollars.” The actual drop was 3.16 percent, with a market cap loss of $4.15 billion. The article has been edited to include the correct information, and we apologize for the error.
UPDATE: As of market close Wednesday, Nike’s stock price had recovered only about one-eighth of its Tuesday losses — $0.32 of $2.60.
Truth and Accuracy
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This article describes mounting pressure from safety advocate groups to have IKEA issue a full recall of their MALM dressers. It includes a statement from Pamela Gilbert, former executive director of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), who called a recall a “no-brainer” at this point after a third toddler fatality caused by IKEA MALM tip-overs. IKEA acknowledges that more than 27 million dressers pose tip-over risks; however, only 300,000 repair kits were issued—a staggeringly low 1% response rate. The article also follows up on a previous letter to the CPSC, as well as continued efforts to rework industry safety standards.
Parents of any child injured by a dresser that has overturned — whether IKEA or any other brand — are urged to contact Feldman Shepherd to share their story and discuss their legal options. The firm can be reached at (844) 480-0100 or by filling out the form below.